Determination of wall shear stress in the abdominal aorta using magnetic resonance phase velocity mapping

The magnetic resonance (MR) phase velocity mapping is used to evaluate wall shear stress in-vivo and to examine whether areas of low wall shear stress correlate with sites where atherosclerosis is prone to develop. Measurements were performed at locations in the abdominal aorta; one location was the suprarenal aorta, where atherosclerosis usually does not develop and the other was the infrarenal aorta where atherosclerosis is prone to develop. Both the mean and maximum wall shear stress values at the two locations were calculated and compared. Additionally, the variation in wall shear stress between individuals was determined. In general, results of this were found to support the hypothesis that low wall shear stress is a localizing factor for atherosclerosis.